Among Arsenio Hall’s treasure trove of iconic life stories is his first experience doing cocaine.
The moment the legendary comedian took the stage at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, Calif., Monday night, he pointed to a small booth in the far back corner of the packed room.
The spot, Hall explained, holds a special place in his heart, as it was there that he first tried coke at the behest of the late Richard Pryor, who dominated comedy in the ’70s and ’80s.
Hall told the crowd that the two were hanging out at the historic club after hours when Pryor handed him a “rock” and a $100 bill.
As the funnymen snorted the illicit white powder, the former late-night talk show host said an oblivious Stevie Wonder played the piano nearby.
The “Coming to America” star quipped that the musician, who is blind, likely thought the duo was battling “allergies.”
Performing at The Comedy Store was sentimental for other reasons, too, as Hall, 67, explained he’d been cracking jokes there for over four decades.
After the wildly successful “Arsenio Hall Show” went off the air in 1994 after five years, the namesake star stepped out of the spotlight, leading many to believe he had checked into rehab.
“I went on the internet, and read I was in detox at Betty Ford,” Hall said publicly a few years later. “I got online under a fake name and typed in, ‘I know Arsenio better than anyone else, and he’s not in detox, you idiots!'”
He ended up taking more time off from showbiz to raise his son, Arsenio Hall Jr., who was born in 1999. The stand-up comic revived “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 2013, but it was canceled after just one season.
Pryor, for his part, sadly struggled with addiction.
In 1980, the “Superman III” star infamously suffered second- and third-degree burns on more than half his body after igniting an explosion while freebasing cocaine.
His daughter Rain Pryor claimed at the time that the incident happened as a result of a bout of drug-induced psychosis.
Pryor died in 2005 following his third heart attack. He was 65.
